Ex-Pence aide knocks Trump, backs Biden
A former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence assailed President Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic in a new video Thursday, adding to the growing list of former Trump administration officials who have criticized the president and, in several cases, endorsed his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
Olivia Troye, who was a homeland security adviser to Pence and his lead staffer on the White House’s coronavirus task force, charged in the twominute video that Trump failed to protect the American public because he only cared about himself and getting reelected. Troye’s criticism is particularly striking because of her role working on the coronavirus task force, which Pence leads.
“Towards the middle of February, we knew it wasn’t a matter of if COVID would become a big pandemic here, it was a matter of when,” said Troye, who left the White House in late July. “But the president didn’t want to hear that, because his biggest concern was that we were in an election year, and how was this going to affect what he considered to be his record of success?”
At one coronavirus task force meeting, Troye claimed that Trump suggested “maybe this COVID thing is a good thing.”
“I don’t like shaking hands with people. I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people,” Troye claimed Trump said at the meeting.
The White House responded swiftly to Troye’s allegations by accusing her of being a disgruntled employee who didn’t raise objections while on staff.
“I haven’t read her comments in any detail, but it reads to me like one more disgruntled employee who’s left the White House and now has decided to play politics during an election year,” Pence said of Troye, in response to a question from a reporter. “I think my staff has indicated that she made no comments like that when she was serving on our team here at the White House coronavirus task force.”
Pence added he “couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve done all along the way and the leadership that President Trump has provided.”
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said, “Outside of generally watching the White House Coronavirus Taskforce from the overflow staff room, this disgruntled former detailee was never in private meetings with the president and her assertions have no basis in reality and are flat out inaccurate.”
And Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser, said in a statement Troye was “disgruntled that her detail was cut short.”
“Ms. Troye directly reported to me, and never once during her detail did she every express any concern regarding the Administration’s response to the Coronavirus to anyone in her chain of command,” Kellogg said.
Troye’s video was released by Republican Voters Against Trump, a GOP group seeking to defeat Trump in November. Troye has also joined a new anti-Trump group formed by Republicans, the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform, or REPAIR, which says it’s seeking to “refocus the Republican Party’s priorities, and repair the American republic.”